By the Rev. Arthur P. Morres, Vicar of Britford. 129 



glass off and put the incubator on the table, that I might narrowly 

 watch the growth of the wings, and, in twenty minutes by the 

 watch, the wings had attained their full length, though for some 

 few minutes longer they remained flabby, ere they began to assume 

 their stiff perpendicular position, as before described. As I was 

 watching it I saw a slight movement in the moss below, and a 

 second moth crept out from beneath the moss, and ran like a lamp- 

 lighter up one of the sticks. So agile and hurried were its move- 

 ments that it seemed to say, " Oh, wherever is my stick to cling to, 

 for I have not a moment to lose ? " At last No. 2 also settled 

 himself comfortably not far from No. 1. Upon this I carefully 

 removed the moss altogether, and immediately noticed that one of 

 the other chrysalides had grown rigid and unusually extended, and I 

 said to my wife, " I believe that that one is on the point of bursting," 

 and while we were watching it, we heard a " click," and the under 

 side of the chrysalis burst open and out came a leg. In less than 

 a minute the moth had freed itself altogether, and had clambered 

 up the third stick, to which I guided it, and there were the three 

 moths, all in different stages of development at the same time, 

 affording us one of the most interesting spectacles that, to my mind, 

 I have ever seen. In about two hours they were all fully developed ; 

 and with some compunction I was obliged to put an end to their 

 short-lived existence by first chloroforming them, and then, after 

 they had become stupified, popping them into one of the regular 

 entomological " smelling-bottles." I found this change advisable, 

 inasmuch, as if you leave them too long in the chloroform, their 

 wings at times become so stiff that you cannot afterwards easily 

 alter them ; and if you leave them in too short a time they will 

 sometimes unexpectedly come to life again, as to my inexpressible 

 horror I found one had actually done on the next morning after I 

 had carefully laid him out on the setting board. 



On leaving the next morning I sent my case with eight remaining 

 pupse to a neighbouring friend, who was a very experienced ento- 

 mologist, requesting him to look after them for me until my return, 

 asking him to keep them as warm as he could. I heard from him 

 some days after, saying, to my surprise, that no more moths had 

 VOL. xxii. — no. lxiv. K 



